It's Probably Me, 7''

Soundbites

Sumner's Tales: Sting talks...

"The song was co-written by Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen. They'd done a bit of music and they asked me to turn it into the theme tune to Lethal Weapon 5 or whatever it was. I wondered what the hell I could write that would suit Lethal Weapon and I finally chose the buddy movie theme. I figured that the Mel Gibson and Danny Glover characters were big macho guys who'd have some reticence about expressing their love for each other, so they'd say, if you need someone to stop you getting killed, it'll probably be me. I think Eric was quite bemused to see what I'd done to his music."Independent On Sunday, 11/94

"Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen were doing a soundtrack and they phoned up and said maybe you could write a theme song, and they played me the theme that they had used in the previous two movies, so I adapted the changes in it and wrote a melody and some lyrics. I sent it back to Warner Brothers and Michael Kamen, and they said, 'Oh we love it, it's great, why don't you sing it' So I came over to New York and sang it and Eric played a beautiful guitar solo. I then decided I'd like to do it with the band in a different way, and I think it is different. I don't think it's better or worse, I think what we've arrived at is a slightly more nocturnal sound. I think it's important too, that the skeleton of a song is what you build on, and the record is only a blue print and so you can change and adapt, change keys, change the structure, change the feel, change the vibe. Just breathe new life into it every time you do it otherwise you set it in stone and it's dead."'Ten Summoner's Tales' Promotional Interview Disc, '93

Backgrounder

Co-written by Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen, 'It's Probably Me' was released as a single in the August 1992, and was the theme song for one of the Gibson/Glover 'Lethal Weapon' movies. Sting then re-recorded the track with his band for the 'Ten Summoner's Tales' album making it, in his words, more 'nocturnal'. The song was played on the Summoner's Travels world tour but has not reappeared on subsequent tours. A live version of the song recorded in 1983 at Villa Manin in Italy can be found on the 'Demolition Man' CD single.